Some recipes start from an idea and just magically come together when the ingredients are in my hands. Others take years of fiddling, research, scrapping the whole idea and starting again, more fiddling, seeking expert advise, testing and retesting before satisfying results emerge. This recipe is definitely in the latter group. The idea of a color-changing recipe is one of those white whales I have been chasing for years. Now, finally, I have a recipe I’m excited to share.

The Concept, Trials and Errors

When I first read about color changing food pigments I could barely contain my glee. I mean, think of the possibilities: a dish that can change COLORS? It turns out that lots of plants have pigment molecules that are pH indicators. In a neutral or basic solution they will appear green-blue or blue-purple, but add some acid and they’ll turn purple or red. (You’ve probably seen examples of this already: blueberries in blueberry pancakes will sometimes turn green if the batter has too much baking soda, or brush your teeth with a baking soda toothpaste after drinking a glass of red wine and you’ll end up with a mouthful of blue foam.) Lots of dishes get a little something acidic thrown in at the end, so it didn’t seem like making a dish to use this color-change trick would be too difficult.

My very first experiments quickly showed that I would need a mostly clear solution in order to show off the color change. (Opaque foods just muddied it up and got in the way). So I got to work trying out all sorts of ingredients with color-changing pigments: radicchio, red cabbage, blueberries. The findings of these tests were disappointing. Either the color would come out muddied and dull (blueberries) or the flavor would be horrid (red cabbage) or both (radicchio). And that’s not even getting to the hardest part: acidity. Nearly everything that we eat is acidic. Egg whites and most tap water are slightly basic, but everything else is just varying degrees of acidity. For the color change to work, you need an acid addition that will significantly change the pH, but not until the dish is served. (So adding any acid to the mix beforehand is a no-go.) And this makes adding any flavor difficult. Just about every flavor-enhancing technique I thought of either muddied up the color or added acid. Perhaps, I thought, this is a phenomenon that works great in an eighth grade chemistry class, but really shouldn’t be brought into the kitchen.

And then I met this little blue flower. (Hello, butterfly blue pea flower!) It doesn’t seem to have much of an audience in the US yet, but Thai and Chinese cooks have long used this little flower to color foods and make teas with a brilliant blue hue. For my money, this is truly a remarkable ingredient. For one thing, it’s hard to overstate how brilliant the color from this flower is. The pigment is highly soluble– you don’t even have to boil it to release the color. And since the flowers can be dried, it is easy to keep them on hand. The only slight detractor is that they don’t have any real flavor on their own. But even that negative can be a boon– you could use these little guys to color any sort of dish, and add whatever flavors you want separately. Finally I had an ideal candidate to make a color-changing recipe, and I decided a fancy cocktail would be just the thing to showcase this remarkable little ingredient. I chose to make an alcoholic beverage, but there is no reason that the same techniques wouldn’t work for non-alcoholic beverages.

Developing the Recipe

To create a color-changing cocktail I knew I would need a butterfly blue pea-infused liquor, and then an acidic addition to activate the color change. I also wanted to add some other flavors and a little sweetness to the cocktail. After a little poking around, I found out that most vodkas and gins have a neutral or near-neutral pH. I chose gin for my cocktail, but vodka would work just as well.

Adding other flavors gets a little tricky– it’s hard to add anything into the mix without inadvertently adding acid. (And we want to save that for the dramatic finale.) I found that creating a syrup with fresh herbs did not add too much acidity, and could still bring lots of flavor with them. I chose to make a light syrup, (not that high of a sugar concentration) just because I don’t like my drinks very sweet. I was going for flavor, with just enough sweetness to cut the harshness of the gin and balance the acid addition. I also found that infusing a hot syrup gently (rather than boiling it) will give you a syrup that is more clear. It’s not totally colorless, but it’s clear enough so the color-changing effect isn’t noticeably diminished.

The last element was the acid. I tried a number of combinations of floral and herbal syrups with different acids (including some interesting experiments with white balsamic vinegar and vermouth.) The clear favorite in the taste category was basil syrup with fresh lime juice. I’m sure that there are other winning combinations out there– I anxiously await to hear more ideas from all you talented mixologists… The one caveat I would add is that you get the most dramatic color change effect when you add a strong, liquid acid. (I did some tests with powdered citric acid and frozen lime juice: meh.) The most satisfying display was with just plain lime juice. I specify straining the lime juice to try to keep the drink as clear as possible.

The Elusive “Secret” Ingredient

The first (and most difficult) part of making this drink will be getting your hands on some butterfly blue pea flowers. (Unless you happen to live in Thailand. Then it seems like it will be quite easy.) I have found the easiest way to get these guys is to order through amazon. Search for butterfly blue pea flowers in tea, and you’ll find a few vendors that carry them. The catch is, they all ship from Thailand, and shipping to the US usually takes about a month. They aren’t cheap (with shipping my order was around 20$), but the 50g. bag that I bought will definitely make around 5 bottles of color-changing liquor. And the dried flowers keep well, so you could get quite a lot of use out of an order.

While it isn’t easy to get your hands on dried flowers in the US, it is fairly easy to get seeds. So the other option is to grow the plant yourself. I was so intrigued by this little flower, I decided to try my hand at growing some fresh ones in my backyard this year. I am by no means an expert gardener, but I can share a few tips that I’ve figured out from growing this little guy. (And, if we’re being honest, killing off some other seedlings along the way)

1. Use a bean/pea innoculant when you start your seeds. I tried germinating two batches of seeds, one with innoculant and one without. I got a MUCH better germination rate (around 70%) with innoculant as compared to 33% without.

2. Heat, heat, heat. Unlike regular garden peas, these guys like it hot. I started some seedlings on a heating mat, which seemed to work. But my attempts to harden off plants to grow outside in colder temperatures (60-70s F) were not successful. The healthy plant that I grew was started indoors with lots of light, and I didn’t move it outdoors until the temperature lows were in the 70s (mid-summer here in New York). You also want to plant them in well-drained soil, and don’t over-water them. (This plant likes soil on the dry side.)

3. This plant has delicate roots and does not like being repotted. I would suggest starting seedlings in peat pots so you don’t need to disturb the roots when transferring them to a container or the ground.

4. Give them a trellis or fence to climb on. Like other varieties of peas, this plant only seems to flower once it has reached a certain height. (Then the extending vines produce lots of flowers. )

5. If you want to have enough blossoms to make a bottle of color-changing gin, you’ll probably need several plants. I’m estimating that my single vine will produce about 2 dozen blossoms this year. That’s not bad, but it would only make about a quarter of a bottle of liquor. The plants really are stunning, though. And the fresh flowers can be eaten and used as a garnish on all sorts of dishes. I’ll definitely be planting them again next year.

6. If you live in a tropical climate, this plant is likely to do very well. Possibly even too well– in some parts of Australia it is considered an invasive species. So growers in these climates should take extra precautions to keep these vines from escaping.

Basil Lemongrass Syrup:
1 c. sugar
1 ½c. thai basil (If you cannot get thai basil, just use italian basil and add 1-2 seeds of star anise. And just one prong off the star, not the whole thing.)
2 T sliced lemongrass
2 c. boiling water

For Serving:
Limes (1 oz. lime juice per serving)
Fine-meshed strainer
tea pot, creamer or other container to pour a small amount of lime juice into the finished drink.
Ice

Infuse Gin

One at a time, remove the green base leaves from the dried flowers, keeping just the colorful petals. Place the petals in a clean jar and cover with gin. You don’t need to fill the jar up, just enough to cover the flowers. Stir to saturate the petals. Once they are softened, you can crush them lightly against the side of the jar. This will help speed up the dispersal of the color into the gin. Leave the mixture to sit for a day or two, until it turns very dark blue-purple. Strain out the petals and pour the concentrated color into a clean bottle. Pour in additional gin until it is diluted to your desired color intensity (remembering that the color will be dispersed more when it is mixed into a cocktail.) Most likely, the bottle of gin will have a purplish hue at this point. Add 1/4 t. baking soda to the gin and shake to disperse. You can add more baking soda if it is necessary to nudge your gin into the blue range of the spectrum. But go slowly, and add just enough to get the job done. Add just a little and you’ll never know it’s there, but too much baking soda tastes terrible. The color tends to have a more purple appearance when you look through a greater depth. So hold the bottle to the side and look at the color of the gin at the edges to get a more accurate idea of what your gin will look like when it is poured into a cocktail. The infused gin can be made well in advance– my color infused liquors have shown no signs of losing their brilliance after several weeks. (I’ll update if there is any change in the shelf life of the colored gin, but the color seems quite stable.)

Make Syrup

Remove basil leaves from the stems and wash. Slice lemongrass as finely as you can. Lightly bruise the lemongrass under the flat side of your knife. Place sugar, lemongrass and basil leaves (and star anise, if you are using it) in a heat resistant container. Pour in 2c. boiling water and stir to dissolve. Cover the container and let it steep for several hours, until the mixture has cooled to room temperature. Strain the syrup and refrigerate. (Refrigerated syrup will keep for up to two weeks.)

Mix Cocktail

Juice a few limes and pour the juice through a fine-meshed tea strainer or coffee filter. You want this liquid to be as clear as possible to give the finished cocktail its gem-like brilliance.

Measure two ounces of blue gin and one ounce of syrup. Is the color still a nice blue? If so, just charge ahead. If it has edged towards the purple spectrum with the addition of the syrup, you might need to add just a pinch of baking soda to push the pH back toward neutral. Again, go slow, and make sure not to overdo the baking soda. Shake in a cocktail shaker and pour into a martini glass.

To complete the cocktail slowly pour 1 oz. of strained lime juice into the glass. (This would be the recommended moment to stop for a few minutes to bask in the the oohs and ahs.)

Tips for Cocktail Brilliance.

Since the color is the star of this show, it really pays to have a white background. (It is much harder to see the color change against a dark background or competing colors.) A white tablecloth or plate underneath the drinks works wonders.

If you have enough flowers, you can make the drink as intensely blue as you want. BUT I find that you lose some of the brilliance of the color if it is very highly concentrated. When the drink changes colors it will also appear to lighten. So expect that your finished purple drink will look lighter than the initial blue base.

]]>http://kitchentablescraps.com/uncategorized/the-bangkok-blush-a-color-changing-cocktail/feed/0Step-by-step Making a Braided Racerback Tank From an Old Tshirthttp://kitchentablescraps.com/diy/step-by-step-making-a-braided-racerback-tank-from-an-old-tshirt/
http://kitchentablescraps.com/diy/step-by-step-making-a-braided-racerback-tank-from-an-old-tshirt/#commentsTue, 09 Jul 2013 14:39:49 +0000reneehttp://kitchentablescraps.com/?p=2984

If the overview in my visual sewing pattern is a little too vague for you, don’t worry. Here’s the detailed step-by step to turn an old tshirt into this braided racerback tank. It’s a very simple pattern (just one little seam!), but here I’ve included all the little tips and tricks I’ve figured out on how to make your tank come out looking splendid. Enjoy!

Pick a T Shirt

Start with a tshirt with no side seams. Printing is okay, as long as it doesn’t make the fabric stiff or pucker. Also check how the printing looks on the inside of the fabric (the finished tank is turned inside out)– some designs show up through the fabric. Old, beat-up tshirts work great! 100% cotton will work for this pattern, but I think that a cotton/poly blend often has a nicer drape, and is more resistant to unraveling.

Sizing:
Select a shirt that has a width 3-6″ larger than your bust measurement. So: 30″ bust= 36″ tshirt (or 18″ across); 36″ bust = 42″ tshirt (or 21″ across). The bigger the tshirt you use in relation to your size, the more drape the tank will have. This pattern works for size 30-42″ bust. (There is no reason this technique wouldn’t work for smaller or larger sizes, but the pattern pieces will start to be out of proportion. You could also experiment with scaling up or down the pattern pieces for extra small or large sizes.)

Cut out Pattern:

Cut off sleeves:

Starting at the collar, cut outward along the shoulder seam. Cut off the sleeves, cutting as close to the seam as you can. (You can reserve the sleeves for another use)

Cut out pattern:

Rearrange the shirt so that the holes from the sleeves are lined up and in the center. Straighten fabric so that it lies flat. This is the one point that you want to be really fussy– after all, you’re hardly sewing anything , so your cut lines are even more important. Lay a ruler (or something else with a straight edge) across the tshirt horizontally. Place your pattern pieces on the tshirt aligned with the folds and move the ruler (and pattern) up or down until the pieces can completely fit on the tee. If possible, try to avoid having printed fabric run through the straps (on the front pattern piece). Printing sometimes affects the stretch of the fabric, which can show up in the braided strap.

It’s all lined up? Now cut it out! I didn’t pin my pattern down or trace the pattern onto the fabric, but you should do whatever works best for you and helps you keep your cuts neat.

Braid the Straps:

Gently pull the strands to stretch them out. As you pull, they will begin to curl over onto themselves. Snip the top strand in two, right in the middle. (The other two strands remain attached at both ends.) Begin the braid by bringing the outside piece (the one you snipped) into the center. Continue braiding normally until you reach the end of the snipped piece. Pin your braid while you work on the other side. Repeat the same process on the other side. Once you get to the center, you will probably have one loop of fabric that is longer that the other. Wrap the looser loop around the tighter loop until the excess length is gone. Weave the loose ends through the twisted portion and into the rest of the braid. Generally I’ve been able to weave the ends in tight enough that it is secure on its own, but if you’d like, you can reinforce the connection with a few stitches.

Sew up the back:

Turn the shirt inside out. (Any printing should now be on the inside of the shirt) Fold the top edges over to meet each other in the center. Either machine or hand sew a seam between the notches. (You are just sewing the two flaps together, not sewing them down to the fabric beneath.) If you are hand sewing, start at the bottom, and do not cut your thread, just leave your thread hanging off the top of the seam. Turn the triangle inside out so now the lining is facing the inside. If you left a string at the end of your seam, thread it through the top of the triangle. Pull the braided strap below the racerback triangle. Fold the tip of the triangle (about an inch) over the braid to hold up the strap. Pin in place. Now try on the shirt. Adjust the fit by changing how much of the triangle you have folded down. Once you’re satisfied with the fit, sew a few stitches securing the top of the folded triangle to the lining.

Hem treatments:

There’s a number of things you can do to finish the edge. 1. Like the way it looks as is? Just leave it. 2. Want a little more length? Rip out the existing hem seam and iron flat. 3. Want less length? Just cut off the hem and leave the edge unfinished.

Personally, I like it best when the edge is left raw– I think it gels with the rest of the shirt a little better.

Extra credit! Tailoring

Now you have a completely finished shirt (easy, right?) There’s a number of ways you can modify the basic design. Obviously fabric paint and dying can give you quick, bold results. I also like a shirt that has a bit more definition. It’s pretty easy to play around with adding little darts to change the drape of the shirt. My favorite modification is to just pull some of the excess fabric and bring it forward together right around my natural waistline, and add either a button closure or a tie to hold it in place. (You can use strips cut from the sleeves to make a matching tie.)

How it all works:

Won’t the edges unravel? Surprisingly, not really. Especially if the fabric blend has elastic fiber in the mix. Eventually the fibers will stretch and wear out, and you’ll have a loose thread every once in a while. But I’ve found the raw edges to be surprisingly durable and have an average life span for a knit garment.

If the edges aren’t sewn, why don’t the raw edges show? Knit fabric curls in a complicated way. It curls in one direction if cut horizontally and another if cut vertically. Most of the fussing I did with this design was trying to figure out how to get the fabric to curl the way that I wanted it (inward) and still be in the shape I wanted. This pattern works because the two areas of vertical cuts are secured in a different way. On the front, it’s by braiding, and on the back it’s by folding over extra fabric to make a lining. The rest of the cuts curl inward on their own, just like magic.

Can I use a v-neck or a polo shirt? Well… not really. Fitting the pattern to a shirt with a deep cut in the front doesn’t work quite as well. Usually you have to scoot the pattern down so far that you’ll end up with a very short shirt. I’m sure there are other ways to work around it, but if you’re looking for the no-fuss method with a reliable result, I’d stick to a crew neck.

I found the perfect tee, but it has side seams. Can I still use it? Does it have to be turned inside out to work?

This pattern definitely needs to be turned inside out to work (otherwise all the edges will curl exactly the wrong way). But, you can still use a tee with side seams. Just make the pattern as specified and then sew new side seams, turning the old ones to the inside. (You’ll have to factor in your seam allowance into the overall width of the tee for sizing.) If you sew side seams, adding buttons or a tie in the front will not work. But you can always add some shaping or darts to your new seam.

A sewing pattern? Kind of new territory for me, right? But this project seemed to fold in perfectly with the values that I look for most in my more food-centric projects (satisfying results made from humble elements), I felt I had to share it. And really it’s a stretch to call this a sewing project– there’s just one little 6″ seam in the whole thing. So it’s a totally approachable undertaking, even for a sewing newbie. Here’s how it works:

There are couple of barriers to achieving a wood-fired pizza at home. The two big ones are getting a suitable facsimile of a pizza oven, and getting a decent dough in the right shape at the right place at the right time. I’m happy to say that I’ve worked out a few methods that I can stand behind and recommend. Be careful, though. Once you know this information you can not unknow it. And if you end up making nightly pizzas… well, don’t say I didn’t warn you.

The dough recipe

First things first: the crust. We all know that a good crust makes a good pizza. It has to be chewy, slightly charred and have the right balance of crispy outside to pliant interior. You don’t have to use my dough recipe. Not that my recipe isn’t good (it is!), but I wouldn’t want you to think that there is something secret in my recipe that will make your dough come out differently than every other dough. In fact, the best doughs undoubtedly come from lengthy fermentation using sponges and starters, but let’s stick with a “quick” recipe for the moment. Whatever the source of your recipe, there are a few very important things it has to have to yield a quality crust. 1. Bread flour. Bread flour has a higher gluten content than all purpose flour– that gluten is the key to getting a chewy, stretchy dough. 2. Long, slow kneading. Once again, it’s all about the gluten. It takes time and agitation for the gluten proteins to connect and form a web that will give your dough it’s structure. I use a dough hook in a stand mixer and let the whole thing mix on the lowest speed for at least ten minutes. (Though some purists insist on hand kneading.) At this point the dough should look smooth and stretch into a long melted-mozzarella-like string when you lift the dough hook out. Waiting to add the salt and oil until after the initial mixing will also ensure that you get the best gluten development. 3. Proper hydration. In bread baking, the general rule is that the wetter your dough is, the bigger holes in your finished bread. In pizza, you want a dough with large well developed holes.(You know, the kind that will swell up and char to perfection.) So you need to have a very wet dough. Wet doughs can be a bit tricky to work with (which is why you’ll find lots of recipes for stiff pizza dough out there. I’d say at you want at least 1/3 the volume of water to the volume of flour. (Some recipes, including mine, may be as much as is ½ the volume of water to flour.) If you’ve developed your gluten sufficiently, even a wet dough will be workable.

Shaping the dough

It isn’t actually that tricky to shape a pizza dough by hand. (As long as you don’t have your heart set on launching the dough gracefully into the air and catching it with dancerly elegance.) But don’t even think of using a rolling pin– the hand stretching is crucial to achieving the correct dough consistency. 1. Weigh your dough. For my recipe each 10″ pizza will use about 170 grams of dough. If you don’t have a scale, sure, you can just eyeball equal portions. But if you want to practice getting that perfect, just-the-right-thickness crust, it helps to know exactly how much dough you are starting with. 2. Let it rest. Gluten is elastic– this means it tends to spring back to the shape that it was in before. After you’ve tucked your dough into a ball, let it rest at least five minutes. It will be much more cooperative when you try to stretch it. 3. Cut parchment rounds. There’s nothing traditional about this one, I’m afraid. But I find cutting rounds of parchment to be incredibly helpful. Cut them to the exact size of the surface you’ll be cooking your pizza on, and you’ll know exactly how large a circle you should be stretching your dough to. And it also makes transferring your pizza into the oven a snap. Yes, it is possible to transfer a pizza using just cornmeal or semolina. But, sadly, I am not a professional pizziaola. And I cannot accept the possibility (inevitability?) of the occasional torn, dropped, burned and ruined pizza while I work out the kinks in my technique. So I’ll stick to my parchment rounds, thank you. 4. Stretch & press. Now that your dough is ready to be shaped, pick it up over two fists (no pointy fingers that might poke holes through the dough). Rock the dough back and forth between your two fists, letting gravity stretch the dough out. Try to focus your stretching at the outside rim of the pizza, you don’t want to stretch the inside to a paper-thin sheet. Gently set your dough down onto your parchment round. Reach your fingers underneath the thicker edges and stretch the dough out to the edge of the parchment sheet. Use your fingertips to dimple the surface of the dough all over. This will ensure that you don’t get any huge dough bubbles that might create a pizza-topped balloon in the oven. You can now top the pizza with whatever you like… but use a light hand with toppings for this style of pizza. This style of pizza will not do well buried in molten cheese and laden with mounds of toppings.

The oven

Pizza ovens heat up much hotter than your oven can (anywhere from 800- 1000 F). And since my little oven tops out at 500, there’s simply no way that I could get a crust similar to one baked in a real pizza oven, right? Well, sort of. I have heard intriguing rumors of a technique to hack a home pizza oven and decided it was time to investigate. The scheme is to heat a cast iron skillet on your stovetop, then bake the pizza on that just a few inches underneath a broiler and you’ve got a cooking environment that looks promisingly like a pizza oven. After half a dozen trials (including one that stripped the precious seasoning right off my iron skillet) I’ve come up with my own version of the home pizza oven trick. And I’m happy to say that it will turn out an excellent pizza in just a few minutes. And as an extra bonus, you don’t have to spend an hour preheating your pizza stone– just a quick stovetop heating, and you’re in business.

1. Prepare your oven. First, gather up all of your equipment. Once everything is hot, the whole process goes very quickly, so you’ll want to make sure that everything fits and works together first. You’ll need an enameled* cast iron skillet or dutch oven with a 10” diameter, flat base. You’ll be baking with the pan upside down, adjust the oven rack so that the surface of your upside-down pot is about three inches away from your broiler. (If you are using a skillet, you’ll need something metal to prop it up– a round cake pan works nicely.) Place an empty baking sheet on the lower rack to catch any drips that get away from your pizza.

2. The bottom heat. The whole reason this technique works is that you can heat cast iron on your stovetop much hotter than a pizza stone in your oven. When you’re ready to cook your pizza, preheat your cast iron skillet or dutch oven over high heat for 7-12 minutes. On my electric stovetop my dutch oven takes 10 minutes to preheat. But that is my stovetop, and my pot– you’ll have to play around and test to figure out the exact timing for your kitchen. Pour a teaspoon of water into the pot and it should dissipate into steam almost immediately. The last drop should be gone within two seconds. Quickly (and carefully) invert your pan, slide your pizza on and bake immediately.

3. The top heat. In my oven, setting the broiler to low will cook a pizza in a little less than 5 minutes. The broiler doesn’t take that long to preheat– but you’ll still want to have some ambient heat in the oven. Seven or eight minutes preheating will likely do the trick. Once again, you’ll have to experiment to figure out what works best in your oven.

4. The optional wood smoke. This part is really, truly optional. It all depends on whether the thought of wisps of wood smoke curling around your baking pizza fills your heart with joy or sends you and your smoke detector into a panic. If you are a wood-smoke fiend like me, then read on. If not, don’t worry, I’m sure your pizza will still be magnificent. Soak a few smoking chips in water an hour or two before you’ll be baking. Wrap the chips loosely in a tin foil packet and poke a half dozen holes in the top of the packet.. In the last two or three minutes of preheating your cast iron, toss your packet of smoking chips into the pot and cover. (This heat will get the smoke started.) Use tongs to transfer the packet of smoking chips to your oven rack when you’re ready to start cooking.

5. Troubleshooting. Balancing this stuff out is mostly common sense– if your pizza is browning too quickly on either the top or the bottom, then you’ll want to reduce the heat from that side (and vice versa if it’s not cooking quickly enough.) While you’re experimenting be sure to take notes– once you figure out how long to preheat and what broiler setting to use, you can whip out a perfect pizza in just a few minutes.

*The whole process will ruin the seasoning on your unfinished cast iron ware. And, yes, enameled cast iron is quite expensive. But if you look around you might be able to find a chipped or damaged pot or skillet for pretty cheap. Chips on the surface of the enamel aren’t great for cooking, but won’t cause any problems for this pizza stone technique.

Fried eggs and wood oven pizza are two of my all-time favorite foods. So when I first tasted a pizza with an egg cooked right on top, I knew it was the start of a love affair. Two perfect (and simple foods) knit together so artfully in the way that makes you think “now why have I never done that?” For my egg pizza, I wanted flavors that would enhance, not compete with the flavor of the egg. I started with a base of garlic and added lightly sauteed chanterelles. The earthy sweet mushrooms and savory garlic infuse into the egg as it cooks giving you a savory white, and (if you cook it just right) a yolk that is still runny enough to ooze all over your plate.

Yield:

6 individual pizzas

Mix Dough

Pour yeast into the bottom of your mixer bowl. Pour warm water over the yeast. Stir in malt syrup to dissolve. Pour the flour and wheat germ over the water. Fit the mixer with the dough hook and turn to medium for a minute or two, just until the dough comes together. Turn the speed down to low and let mix for about 10 minutes. By now the dough should be cleaning the side of the bowl. Add the salt and mix for another minute or two until the salt is completely absorbed. Add the olive oil and mix until the oil is incorporated (it might take another minute or two of mixing.) Cover the mixing bowl with plastic wrap and let it rise until doubled (about 2½ hours.) If you are using the smoking chips cover them in water and leave them to soak.

Prepare Toppings

Pour hot water over dried mushrooms and leave them to rehydrate. Peel garlic and mince. Lightly saute garlic with a few tablespoons of olive oil until fragrant. Set the garlic and oil aside in a bowl. Slice the chanterelles thinly. Saute the chanterelles in a tablespoon of olive oil. Set chanterelles aside. Grate cheese.

Preshape Dough

Divide dough into six equal portions (about 170g. if you have a food scale). Tuck the ends of each piece of dough under so that each portion is a little round. Set rounds on a well floured surface and leave them to rest for at least 5 minutes.

Prepare Oven

Cut 10” rounds of parchment paper. If you are using a skillet, find a cakepan or something similar (not pyrex, though) to invert your skillet onto so that you’ll end up with a flat surface. Adjust your oven rack so that the surface of the skillet or dutch oven is about three inches away from the burner. Wrap soaked wood chips in tin foil, sealing the edges to make a neat packet. Poke a few holes in the top.

Shape Dough

Press dough into a disc. Tuck your fingers under and transfer the dough on top of your hands. Carefully rock the dough back and forth between your two fists, stretching as you go. Place dough on a parchment round. Lightly flour your fingertips and press the edge of the dough outward until you have a uniform round. If the dough is still too thick at the edges, run your fingers underneath the edge and gently stretch out the edge. The finished dough should come within a half an inch of the edge of the parchment round.

Top & Bake Pizza

Place your skillet on the stove and turn the heat to high and set a timer for 10 minutes. Turn your broiler on to low. Brush pizza with garlic and olive oil. Scatter cheese and chanterelles over the surface of the pizza. If you are using smoking chips, toss the packet of chips in your preheating pan for the last 2 minutes of preheating. Cover.

Transfer your smoking chips to the oven rack. Invert your pan and (carefully) move it to the oven. Slide the pizza and parchment onto the surface of the skillet. Close the oven door and let cook for 2½ minutes. Crack an egg into a bowl. At 2½ minutes, pour the cracked egg into the center of the pizza. Cook for another 2½ minutes, or until the crust is blistered, crisp and golden. Scatter arugula leaves over the surface of the pizza. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Eat immediately.

If you are cooking more than one pizza you’ll need to transfer your pot back to the stovetop and bring it up to high heat again before baking the next pizza. It will only take a minute or two to bring it backup to a suitable temperature.

]]>http://kitchentablescraps.com/uncategorized/pizza-with-egg-arugula-and-chanterelles/feed/0Gingerbread Block: sneak peekhttp://kitchentablescraps.com/gingerbread-block-project/gingerbread-block-sneak-peek/
http://kitchentablescraps.com/gingerbread-block-project/gingerbread-block-sneak-peek/#commentsMon, 10 Dec 2012 16:31:54 +0000reneehttp://kitchentablescraps.com/?p=2864Whew! Last night we just unveiled the complete gingerbread block! (You can go see it yourself at 61 Local.) There will be many more pictures to come soon, but I couldn’t wait to post a few shots of the completed project. My friend Patrick from Uncommon Caribbean stopped by at the opening last night and took these lovely photos. Thanks, Patrick! And the rest of you: stay tuned. More gingerbread eye candy is on the horizon.

]]>http://kitchentablescraps.com/gingerbread-block-project/gingerbread-block-sneak-peek/feed/0Gingerbread block workday #1http://kitchentablescraps.com/baking/gingerbread-block-workday-1/
http://kitchentablescraps.com/baking/gingerbread-block-workday-1/#commentsTue, 27 Nov 2012 15:28:58 +0000reneehttp://kitchentablescraps.com/?p=2824This Sunday we officially kicked off the construction of the gingerbread block. We managed to get the walls for the first building in the block cut and sculpted. The lovely Jessika Creedon stopped by to help, and she also took some pictures. So here’s a little eye candy for those of you who are eager to see progress on the block. Volunteer days are filling up fast, but there are still a few spots left. So if you want to get your hands dirty and help build the block, sign up here.

]]>http://kitchentablescraps.com/baking/gingerbread-block-workday-1/feed/0Gingerbread Block Projecthttp://kitchentablescraps.com/baking/gingerbread-block-project/
http://kitchentablescraps.com/baking/gingerbread-block-project/#commentsThu, 08 Nov 2012 17:35:53 +0000reneehttp://kitchentablescraps.com/?p=2759Last year I built a brownstone out of gingerbread and wrote an article about it. I thought that this was going to be a lark, interesting to only the nerdiest of pastry nerds. I was wrong. Images of my little house made their way all around the internet: design sites, craft sites and New York sites. Finally, the house itself made an appearance a movie set (so keep your eyes peeled for it on the big screen this January!) It seems like a lot of folks have a secret love for fanciful gingerbread creations. The unlikely overlap of design, food, craftiness and unabashed New York love struck a chord. Last year my little gingerbread house was something other folks could appreciate through pictures. This year I plan to build something even bigger, and I want you all to help.

The Gingerbread Block Project

This year I am orchestrating the creation of a whole New York street scene, built entirely out of gingerbread, icing and magic. The buildings will be baked, constructed and decorated by a group of volunteer (mostly amateur) bakers. The finished block will be displayed at 61 Local Brooklyn in December where anyone can come and check it out in person. At the end of the month, the buildings will be auctioned off, with all proceeds going to benefit City Harvest.

To build a gingerbread project this ambitious, I’m going to need lots of help. Folks who want to help build the gingerbread block can volunteer for a few hours of gingerbread handiwork, and get some first hand gingerbread construction experience while they’re at it. This is not just for pros, everyone can pitch in their special skills (and learn some new ones too.) Volunteers will gather and work together on evenings and weekends to make the gingerbread block come together. The construction will happen over 9 work days, and will take place at 61 Local in Boerum Hill. After the gingerbread creations have been displayed for the public to marvel at, New York gingerbread fans can place a bid on a house and a few lucky bidders will get to take their gingerbread houses home.

Want to be a part of the block project? Fantastic! Here are a few ways you can help:

1. Sign up to be a volunteer baker/decorator. All the information about where and when is right here.

2. Take a gingerbread decorating class. Want to make your own gingerbread house? I’ll be teaching a class or two on gingerbread techniques. A portion of the proceeds from these classes will help offset the material costs of building the gingerbread block.

3. Bid on a finished gingerbread masterpiece! Once we’ve displayed our creations, we’re going to auction them off. If you can make it to Brooklyn to pick up your gingerbread house, you can place a bid! All profits will be donated to City Harvest.

4. Help spread the word to other gingerbread-loving New Yorkers. Tweet, post, link–spread the gingerbread love!

Sign up here if you want updates on how and when you can get involved.

I don’t want you to get the wrong impression– I’m definitely not a master at either homebrewing or printmaking. But, I am pretty darn good at figuring out how to make food and beverages look nice. And after relegating my homebrews to plain brown bottles, (yawn) I decided it was time to figure out how to make a label that was as attractive and carefully crafted as my beer. This is a project that can totally be tackled by a first time printmaker, and still get beautiful results. I might also add that nothing about this technique limits it to beer– I can imagine custom soda labels, wine bottles or even jam jars would have beautiful results.

For those of you who are uninitiated to the hobby/cult of homebrewing, making labels for beer poses a few logistic challenges. First, the ink must not be water soluble. (At the first drop of condensation on the water soluble inks would turn your label into a bleeding mess.) So absolutely no ink-jet printing, and no water soluble inks. The oil-based inks and relatively ease with which you can make prints led me to block printing. I’ll be the first to admit that my block printed design is not the easiest solution. (Printing labels with an laser printer definitely seems like the easiest.) But I loved the idea of a handmade label– it seems to suit a handmade beer particularly well. And if you do go to the trouble to cut a block for printing, you can then print your design on all sorts of things– cardboard (for coasters!), fabric (beer-themed canvas bags! T-shirts!) Best of all, you’ve got the block already made and will be able to quickly churn out new labels the next time you brew a batch of that particular beer. And if you know a home brewer and make them a custom label as a gift… Well, then you’ve made a friend for life.

Materials

Depending on what materials you have on hand, you might not need to buy too may new tools to make a block print. If you haven’t made prints before, there are a few that you’ll need though (namely block printing ink and a brayer). If you’re crafty, you’ve probably already got most of the other materials lying around.

For Carving Your Block:

Block -The material that you carve into is the biggest decision you’ll make. You can use wood, linoleum, little sheets of rubber sold for carving, or even a large rubber eraser. A harder material (like wood) will last longer. A softer material (like linoleum or rubber) will wear out and get damaged more quickly. The up side is that softer materials are much easier to carve. So you could carve a rubber eraser using a razor knife, but you’ll need special tools to carve linoleum and wood.

Carving Tools- Depending on what surface you will be carving, you’ll need to get the appropriate tools. Little sets of carving tools for block printing are available at art stores. Or if you have a dremel (as I do) you can take advantage of electricity. I did my carving for this block exclusively with a dremel fitted with a flex shaft. Using a dremel and a hard block material, it is possible to get pretty precise details. If I were using a softer material, it might be more difficult to get fine details to come through.

Carbon Paper- You’ll need this to transfer your design to your block. But you can always use a pencil (coupled with some vigorous scribbling action) in a pinch.

Pencils, Pens and Paper

For Printing:

Oil-Based Block Printing Ink- The oil-based ink is the key to making printing work for a beer label. You’ll find it at most art and craft stores.Brayer- For newcomers, the brayer is the roller thing that looks like a paint roller with a smooth rubber surface. In order to make block printing work, you need to transfer an even surface of ink onto your block. This is precisely what brayers are made for. It is easiest to apply ink if your brayer is about the same width as the block you will be printing on. A piece of glass or plastic. Smooth, non-porous surface you don’t mind getting dirty. A small sheet of glass works well. I wrapped a piece of scrap wood in plastic wrap.Large tablespoon or other smooth surface for putting pressure on the paperPaper- Whatever you want to print on. I tried out a couple of different colors and combinations for prints. In the end, my favorites were 3 1/2″ by 8″ strips cut from non-glossy magazine pages printed with white ink. I like the layered effect that printing on top of another photo gives. (Also: I feel like a good little recycler, repurposing those old magazines.)Cooking or baby oil, glass cleaner and lint-free rags . Oil based inks have lots of advantages, but they can also make a mess. I don’t like to use more (toxic) solvents than necessary, so I’ve opted for a cleaning method that requires a little more elbow grease, but still gets the job done.

Glue:

Powdered Milk Small Paintbrush

Design Your Label

Before designing your label, you’ll need to pick the size and shape of the block you want to create. My design is 3 1/4″ square. I picked a size that I thought looked good on the bottle, and coincidentally, it also turns out to be the perfect size for making a coaster. Your block, design and paper all need to conform to the shape and size that you select.

Now on to the design part: think simple. Is this your first time carving? Think even simpler. I’d start with simple text and play around with shapes, spacing and placement until you’ve got something you like. If you are drawing by hand, fill in your design in ink to get a good idea of what it will look like. The delicacy of pencil is not going to come through in a block printed design- bold gestures and high contrast are your friends.

Because this beer recipe uses honey, I decided on a bee theme. A hexagon grid was the background, and then I fit in text with the name of the beer in one of the cells. Then I added a few bees (along with their knees), cropped the whole thing down to a square, and presto!

Prepare your carving block.

If you are using rubber or linoleum, all you need to do is cut the block down to the size you want and you’re ready. If you are using wood, you’ll want to sand down the surface until it is very, very smooth. After doing this wood carving (my first!) I have added a second step– paint the surface of the wood white. I found it is helpful when you’re carving to be able to see when you’ve carved through some of the top layer.

Invert And Transfer Your Design

You’ll need to make a mirror image of your label design so that it will print the way that you designed it. If you don’t have carbon paper, you can vigorously scribble in pencil onto the back of your design, then when you trace over it the design will transfer. Place your design where you want it on your block. Cut the carbon paper to fit between the block and the design template. Tape your design template to the block on one side. You want to fix the orientation of the design on the block, but I like to be able to lift it up and make sure that my tracing is transferring well. Last, trace over the design, making sure that you’ve got all the important details. Now remove the design template and fill in all the darkened areas with ink. (This will make it easier to not get confused when you get into carving mode).

Carve Your Block

Now you have one last design decision to make– which parts of your design will be printed with ink, and which will be left blank. Remember, you can use white ink to print, so the light parts don’t have to be the blank ones. Once you decide to carve one color (either the black or the white) away, there is no going back.

Tips and techniques for carving will be very different depending on what material and carving tools you are using. Still I’ve got a few general pointers that I think help in most cases.
1 Go slow. The nice thing about making a block print is that you’ll have that block to reproduce later, but if you rush the carving and make a sloppy pattern, you probably won’t want to.
2. Carve similar shapes one right after the other. Just like anything else, your technique will get better with repetition, and it’s more likely that your results will be consistent throughout the cut.
3. Start with the details first. (I’m sure that some folks disagree with me on this.) I find it easiest to cut all the detailed edges first, then hollow out the middle afterward.
4. Remember that (ultimately) you’re carving will be reduced to just a surface which will either receive ink, or not. This is both good and bad. Good, because you don’t have to worry too much about how pretty the areas you’ve carved away look (it won’t matter to the print). But it can be bad, too, once you’ve carved an area away, there is no going back– sanding and smoothing might make your block look nice, but they won’t necessarily change how the print will come out.

Print

Now it’s time to clean up your block. With linoleum or rubber this is pretty simple. With wood, you’ll want to make sure that you carefully brush all the sawdust out of the carving. I found it helpful to squish a small piece of scrap clay into the block to remove hanging bits of sawdust. Once you start, printing will go pretty quickly, so make sure you have everything you need together before you start: ink, brayer, a non-porous surface to spread your ink on, a spoon (or other smooth object) to help transfer the ink and paper to print on.

Squeeze a small amount of ink out onto your sheet of glass or plastic (think the amount of toothpaste that you use.) Roll the brayer across the ink repeatedly, eventually the ink will start to spread out. Keep rolling, changing the direction every so often until you have the ink spread out thinly and evenly. With a little practice, you’ll notice that the brayer makes a pleasant velcro-like sound when it is rolled over properly spread ink. You’ll probably have to experiment a few times to get the hang of it. I’d err on the side of spreading your ink too thinly– you can always add more, but if you have gloppy ink all over the place, it will be tricky to clean up.

Run your perfectly inked brayer across the surface of your block. You’ll want to run it over your block a few times, and in different directions until you are satisfied that you have an even coating of ink across the surface of your design. Grab the first piece of paper that you want to print on. Pick up the block and place it down on the surface of the paper, wherever you want the print to be. Press the block down firmly. Delicately lift it up– if all goes well the paper will adhere to the ink and you’ll pick them both up together. Flip the block over so that the paper is now facing up. Take your spoon and, gently at first, press the paper down into the block. Increase the pressure gradually and keep working the paper down into the block. Now carefully lift up the paper to reveal your print! Set prints aside to dry, and move on to the next one. Before you know it, you’ll have a good rhythm going and you’ll have made prints on every surface within reach.

Once you’ve made all the prints you’d like to, you’ll need to clean up all of your ink-covered tools. Run the brayer over lots of scrap newspaper to transfer off as much of the ink as you can. Then rub the brayer with a little baby oil, and wipe it clean with a rag. To clean your glass, scrape away as much ink as possible, then spray with glass cleaner and wipe off the ink residue.

Attach Labels

Once your labels are printed and dried (oh, and the beer is brewed, primed and bottled) you can attach your labels. In a small bowl mix together 1 T. powdered milk with 1 T. water. stir the two together until there are no lumps. The larger the area that you apply glue to, the firmer the label will be affixed. But applying liquid to a larger area will also make it trickier to keep the paper from buckling and warping. So you’ve got to figure out a balance for your project. I found applying glue to a half inch strip on either side of the label held them firmly in place, and wasn’t too difficult to apply smoothly. Carefully smooth the paper over the glass until it adheres (just a few seconds). Now smooth down the rest of the label, wrapping it around the bottle. Paint glue over the other side of the label, and hold that end down across the bottle until it adheres. Voila! To remove the labels, just soak the bottles in water, and the glue will loosen and wash off easily.

Blancmange is kind of a curious recipe to pick for a holiday dessert– but hear me out. After a heavy meal, not everyone wants to shovel down a rich dessert packed with eggs and cream. Blancmange, a cooked custard-like dessert traditionally made with spiced almond milk, seemed like the perfect candidate to get a holiday update. This blancmange is light and delicately spiced, but the spices and earthy sweet potato give it a flavor profile that is unmistakably wintry. Oh, and have I mentioned that it is also both vegan and gluten-free? (Who hasn’t been confronted with the challenge of cooking for a guest with a dietary restriction.) Forgive me for burying the lead. But I definitely think this dessert stands on its own even among voracious dairy and bread eaters (like me). Though blancmange is traditionally made out of almond milk, in more contemporary recipes, you’ll often see lots of “real” dairy added in to the mix.

Sticking with the traditional nut milk not only makes this dessert lighter, but it’s also a little gift to all of those folks who avoid dairy (and anyone who cooks for them). My version uses just enough cornstarch to thicken the blancmange to a silky, pudding-like consistency. Decadent, not-too-filling, and you can totally make these ahead of time–enjoy!

Infuse almond milk:

Crush cardamom pods, cinnamon stick, star anise and black peppercorns in a mortar & pestle or beneath a heavy saucepan. Zest orange. Place spices in a saucepan along with 3 c. of the almond milk. Bring the milk to a boil and immediately remove from the stove. Cover and let the milk sit with the spices for 10 minutes. (The milk will separate– don’t worry it will all come back together in the next step. )

Cook Blancmange:

Whisk together brown sugar and cornstarch. Add the remaining cup of almond milk and whisk to combine. Strain the spices out of the hot almond milk and return to your saucepan. Add the corn starch/sugar/almond milk mixture. Place saucepan over high heat. Whisk constantly as the mixture heats. Bring to a boil, whisking vigorously, and cook at a boil for one minute. Pour the mixture into a bowl, and place it in an ice bath to cool. Stir it every once in a while so that it doesn’t form a skin on top. (Alternately, you can place a sheet of plastic wrap on the surface of the blancmange and refrigerate until it is cool).

Blend:

Pour the cooled blancmange into a blender and add the sweet potato. Blend on high for one minute, scraping down the sides of the blender if necessary. Carefully pour the mixture into four wine glasses. Chill glasses for at least an hour before serving. After the blancmange has set in the glasses, drizzle a tablespoon of maple syrup on top of each serving. Carefully tilt the glass so that the maple syrup coats the entire surface of the blancmange. This will keep it from getting a skin.

Candy Pecans:

Preheat oven to 350°F. Toss pecans with 2 T. maple syrup. Spread pecans onto a parchment-lined baking sheet and sprinkle with sea salt. Bake for 5 minutes, remove the pan and stir the pecans so that the bubbling maple syrup evenly coats the pecans. Return the pecans to the oven for 5 more minutes.

Serve:

Serve chilled, topped with candied pecans. Whipped cream makes a lovely accompaniment. You can make the blancmange up to two days in advance. After you coat the surface with maple syrup, wrap the glass in plastic and refrigerate. Or you can prepare the cooked part of the blancmange, and puree it with the sweet potato just before serving.

Update! I’m entering this recipe in to the North Carolina SweetPotato Commision’s “No More Mallows” blogger recipe contest. Check out other awesome sweet potato recipes at their facebook page.